CGIL denounces risks for students and workers

LECCE – Schools closed in Salento due to the orange weather alert issued by the Civil Protection.

There are numerous municipalities that have kept the gates of the institutions of every order and degree closed, so as to avoid that someone could get hurt because of the heavy rains and the strong ones gusts of wind that come from the South and have reached the speed of 100 kilometers per hour.

Reports, photos and videos passing from mobile phone to mobile seem to give reason to these mayors cautious: bad weather is already doing the first damage and in some areas of Salento there are trees that have fallen even in school yards or on cars, flooded and impassable roads, tilting roads, palms bent by the wind, bins that walk down the street, objects that they swirl in the air, flooded basements and even crumbled walls.

Scenes worthy of a Hollywood movie onapocalypse. Thrilling scenes that in the mild Salento we are not used to seeing and that certainly are an alarming sign of the ongoing climate changes.

Attention to bad weather will last until 8pm today and, in addition to the disruptions and to the inconveniences created by the storm and storm surges, the first controversies are not lacking.

The secretary of Flc CGIL of Lecce and Brindisi, in fact, pointed the finger at the administrations of the Common that did not provide for the closure of schools: Nardò, Ugento, Casarano, Gallipoli and Melpignano.

The structures remained open even though, presumably, given the weather conditions, the classes would hardly have been filled with students. And this especially in the case of nursery, elementary and middle schools.

"The opening of the schools created a problem especially for the staff who had to reach the offices from another Salento country. The workers found themselves dealing with bad weather, the hydro-geological risk of trees collapsed in the middle of the road and with the viability in tilt. Some streets of Salento were flooded and impractical and reaching schools was not easy, indeed. Bad weather is a risk for all workers and we have not understood why these mayors have decided to keep the schools open, ”reports Rosa Savoia of the Flc CGIL of Brindisi and Lecce.

"It is paradoxical that Cgil, together with Cisl and Uil, is already organizing many assemblies, at local and national level, relating to safety in the workplace and then we find ourselves dealing with such emergencies. We were also told by the collapse of rubble from a secondary exit of the Moccia di Nardò higher institute, which however did not cause any injuries. The structural condition of the schools always worries us, especially in case of bad weather, "she adds.

"If the climate changes, in a tropicalization process, the institutions must be ready to intervene, structuring themselves to face the emergencies. Now we must also deal with these problems and with new dangers for workers – the secretary continues -. Today many children have lost their lessons because their parents have decided not to accompany them and many teachers have not even managed to leave home to reach the buildings. On the road that connects Nardò to Avetrana, for example, a truck came off the road and the buses with the students on board found a lot of traffic. Already tomorrow there will be the problem of absences to be justified, for everyone. And it is incomprehensible ”.

Already in the early hours of the morning, the viability on the Nardò-Avetrana and along the Leverano-Nardò road was complicated by the presence of large trunks in full roadway and with cypress trees cascading near the cemetery. A tree also fell on the main road 101, at Gallipoli. Similar situations have been recorded in Cutrofiano, Marittima, Andrano, Tricase and Lecce.

As for the hours of work lost today by professors and school staff, according to Rosa Savoia they should not be counted as a day of leave or leave: "In this case two rules of the civil code should apply, according to which the workers who they must be able to reach the job due to force majeure justified. The professors of those schools closed by municipal ordinance are already exonerated: for the colleagues of those Municipalities where the institutes have remained open we ask that the same thing be valid ”.